Layers of Marginalization

I've been thinking a lot, you know, as we in this new Christian fundamentalist, fascist state that we are all coming to terms with. It's it's like waking up from

a nightmare and realizing that it is reality. Is kind of the place that I have been in, and I know millions of people across this country have been in since the decision by the Supreme Court for the first time in the Supreme Court's history and modern times, to be a body that takes away fundamental rights as opposed to providing or expanding on what it means to live

in the land of the Free. And I think that what a lot of young people, young women are facing right now is a country that has become overnight, incredibly dangerous. But here's the thing that for those folks who are trans, who are part of the lgbt Q community, their lives have always been in danger right by virtue of just having the audacity to show up in their body as who they are, to be able to as my guest, Jin will say, to be able to self direct, right

to self direct. And I thought about this as they were speaking. Jin fam is the communications director at an organization called the Transgender Education Network of Texas. So you just imagine just by title alone, what Jin and the people who work at TENT and other LGBTQ organizations in

the state of Texas and nationally are dealing with. And it is the understanding that you have elected officials who are telling you that you do not have the right to dignity and respect, that frankly, you shouldn't even exist.

Gin will walk through the fact that the deaths of trans people, the murders of trans people, have been up in the date of Texas since last year when they started to roll out all of these insidious, cruel policies, ones that we've talked about on this show that criminalize parents for caring for the needs of their transgender children being able to access the hormone treatment necessary in order

for them to thrive. Right, you now have Governor Abbott who has directed and already overwhelmed Child Protective Services Agency to investigate, interrogate, threaten, and criminalize parents for caring for their children because they have decided that what abuse looks

like is what we know to be love. Because when your child comes to you and tells you who they are and that they, without the ability to access these treatments, will kill themselves, will harm themselves, what would any loving parent do, right, What would any parent who actually believes that their child should have the chance at a full and complete life filled with happiness, joy, right, Deny them

that access, deny them that right. Well, that's what Governor Abbott is telling you to do, because you see, in their warped mind, Right, in these Republicans warped mind, they have so much love and commitment and quote unquote passion for the unborn. But fuck those that are able to walk on two feet, crawl right, or breathe actual oxygen. Oh, then they don't give a fuck. And this is what they tell us time and time again. Right, they want to talk about Oh, the overturning of Roe v. Wade

being a win for life. No, the fuck it is not. How is it a win for life when you will against all of the ways that people would be able to protect their families, help their families, provide health and education for their families, to be able to advance their families. Republicans don't want to do any of that, and they don't consider the inability to do so a problem. Well, that's your problem. They're going to force you into creating a family, but they're not going to help you care

for that family. No, they would then admonish you or criminalize how you choose to care for your family because your choice in this quote unquote free nation has been taken away. You have no choice. That choice is dependent on what state that you live in, and if you are a queer person in this country, if you are a trans person in this country, and don't happen to

live right now in a blue state. Because let me just make it clearer, like I say every single week it feels like now, is that our safety is in fact an illusion. It is an illusion. And that is exactly what jin fam will tell us later on in the show Safety isn't real. Right. We love to pretend that, oh, police keep us safe, but we know we have learned the hard way that police do not keep us safe.

They keep themselves safe. They cover their own assets. They don't protect and serve anyone that is outside of their blue force field. Right, the blue shield of silence, the blue code of silence. Damn those citizens, Damn those people that need defending, like the poor children and teachers in Huvaldi that were left to be slaughtered as police what

huddled outside their doors. I am, you know, at a loss when each and every week we begin with a hangover of the despair and the trauma that happened the

week before. This week already you have the Supreme Court making another unilateral decision in a six to three right, deciding that a football coach in Washington State, which we have talked about on this show before, who had been warned by the public school that he was employed by to stop his prayer meetings, right, to stop making such a display on the fifty yard line after each game to pray and have the students rush in and bring

his team in to pray for their victory. And how this case was brought up by the parent of a child who is atheist, who was on the football team and felt like they had no choice that if they did not pray with the coach, then they weren't going to get going to get to play well. Neil Gorsich, who wrote the opinion, said this quote. Both the Free exercise and free speech clauses of the First Amendment protect

expressions like mister Kennedy's. Nor does a proper understanding of the Amendments Establishment Clause require the government to single out private religious speech for special disfavor. The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression for religious and non religious views alike.

So what the Supreme Court has done, after overturning Roe v. Wade, after limiting your access to Miranda rights, has now decided that there is no longer a line between church and state. So how long before we have prayer or back in schools because these teachers decide, well, it is my belief that I need to pray before the start of each day.

And now your children in that classroom, and you, as a parent or caregiver, have no right or legal standing to object on because the Supreme Court just took away that right as well. Another win for radical Christian ideology and a loss for the rest of us. Each decision

is chipping away at democracy. Democracy is supposed to be government that is run for and by the people, where the people actually have a voice in voting actually matters, except the nine people that are getting to make decisions about which rights we actually get and which ones that they don't want us to have anymore, because you know, who gives a fuck about one hundred year old precedent or fifty year old precedent. They weren't elected by the

people and they have lifetime appointments. I created multiple videos recently and I was on MSNBC where I said, you know, we don't even have Democrats opening up an investigation into fucking Clarence Thomas and whether or not he's actually compromise because of what we've learned about the back channeling that his wife, Jenny Thomas was doing with Mark Meadows on the day of the insurrection and days and weeks after.

We've never had an investigation into Brett Kavanaugh, and the fact that the FBI had collected over four thousand tips from people who said that Brett Kavanaugh is a sexual predator. We haven't looked into that. I just don't understand why we even have these fucking rules and regulations and policies on the books that say we have the ability to remove people from their positions if in fact they are compromised.

If nobody's going to do the investigation into the compromise, what the fuck do we have the laws for in the first goddamn place, Because I'm pretty sure that even if there was a hint of anything that was going on with a justice that was appointed by a Democrat, Republicans would have no fucking problem calling an impeachment inquiry, turning that person into the poster child for corruption, and forcing them probably to resign. But Democrats don't do any

of that. You have right now, right Joe Biden is in Europe at the G seven conference, and he's speaking out and talking about Oh, America is back, America is nowhere, and it's not going to be too long before the rest of the world snags the microphone from the mouthpiece of America and says, who the fuck are you to tell us about liberty and justice and freedom. You can't even control your own goddamn country. You're sitting over here in Europe and your Supreme Court just voted to put

women and people with uteruses back into the twentieth century. Right, you don't even have voting rights in most of your goddamn states that haven't been thwarted in some way by Republican zealots. Right, Like, So, who is America in the

world right now? That's a question that other world leaders are going to start to ask, as many of them have offered their own like absolute disbelief and how quickly America and our democracy is crumbling and are gonna need to figure out if America goes down, who's going to be standing up for democracy in the world. As fascism is taking hold across the world. We are focusing right now on what is happening in Ukraine and the horrific bombing of the shopping mall that they don't even know.

They can't even fucking tally the death toll, because that's how many people have probably perished. They couldn't even put out the fire. But we can't put out the fire that the Republicans lit with the election of Donald Trump in twenty sixteen. American democracy is ablaze, and I wish that Merrick Garland was paying as much attention to what was going on in these United States as he was

to what is happening in Ukraine. I'm still waiting around, folks, undering when the sense of urgency and the alarm clock for the Democratic establishment is going to go off, because if it isn't the Roe v. Wade decision, which by the way, all they want to do is fucking fundraise off of. And I'm still wondering why the hell there was no strategy that was put in place when Republicans had been organizing and playing site for the last fifty

goddamn years. Why is everybody caught off guard who's been in leadership and been empowered and been in Congress for fucking decades. Now I understand why the American people are caught off guard because you thought that the people that you elected would actually protect you. You didn't realize that they were only going to be protecting themselves. And what I am seeing that without direct opposition from the Democratic Party and they're taking money from the same goddamn people,

I'm like, are y'all just on the same team? And I have been hoodwinked bamboozled into believing that there was actually a difference between Democrats and Republicans, because right now I don't see one. I see Joe Mansion uttering the same disbelief and clutching the same pearls that Susan Collins is. Oh my god, I can't believe these justices lied to us. Well, they'd fucking lie to you, and you have the power

to hold them accountable for but you won't. So save your fucking outrage for somebody that gives a shit, because I'm sure as I'll don't. What I know is that each and every day in this country is getting worse and worse. And I have friends that I'm in conversation with that are waking up and they are sick, literally

becoming physically ill, not with COVID, but with despair. You know, I have traveled, and I'm certain that all of you have traveled around the world into places that have corrupt governments. We're only going on vacation there, right, We pop in and we pop out. But I can look in those people's eyes and see that there is something that has been put out, and it is their will because they no longer have free will. Their will is dictated to them by their government. That is exactly what is happening

in these United States. But we keep thinking that elections are going to save us, and I'm telling you no, folks, it's time for folks to get out into these streets because these voting booths, once of Republicans take back power, are going to look like you know those little games that you use at the carnival where you are putting in all of your money and the claw comes down and it maybe it picks up something, but most likely it doesn't. That's how it's going to feel every time

we vote. Maybe they'll count it, maybe they won't. But Democrats never stop asking you for your money. And the question is where the fuck is the money going, because it's sureance fuck is in going into messaging and branding. Coming up next, friends, my conversation with the communications director and manager of Outreach at the Transgender Education Network in Texas gin FAM. Hey, I'm David Plots of Slaves Political

gab Fest. As another election season accelerates, it can be tricky to sort through all the noise and the news. Each week on the Gabfest, John Dickerson, Emily Bathslaw and I decipher the headlines, break down the races, and tell you what issues really matter. We do not always agree. We definitely do not always agree, but we always deliver thoughtful debate and we always have a good time. So

subscribe to slates Political Gapfest new episodes every Thursday. Hey there, I want to tell you about another podcast I think you'll love. The Brown Girl's Guide to Politics, hosted by a Shanty Gooler, the president of Emerge BGG, is the one stop shop for women of color who want to

hear and talk about the world of politics. Join as Shanty this season as she talks to incredible women of color who are changing the face of politics and tackling some of the most important issues basing the United States, from reproductive justice to voting rights, to climate change and more. Tune in every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts, folks. I am very happy to welcome to okay F for

the very first time. Jim fam who is the communications director and outreach manager for Transgender Education Network of Texas or tent JINUM. I would ask you about, you know, just casually, how are you, how are you doing these days? How are you feeling about you know, our country and your work. So I'll offer that up as a as a as a jumping off point. For sure, it's been

a weekend, I'll definitely say. And you know, with from all the way from the leak back and I don't know what is it may now like this has been a reality for my state or even longer than that I were talking about September since SPA dropped, and for the folks of color and folks that don't necessarily have great access to healthcare in general, if they're as SISS or CIS, gender or trans or not. It's always been

really hard, especially here in Texas. So everything is going not the best, but we've we've prepared ourselves for a long time for this. So tell us about the nature of your organization and the work that you all do and how it has either changed or shifted. With the myriad of anti trans bills that have originated out of Texas, I call Texas and Florida the Petri Dish of the

radical right right. They are testing out just how far they can go to push the LGBTQ community, but particularly trans people back into the closet or to to criminalize the very existence thereof and so tell us about how what the work primarily is of your organization and if and how it has shifted over the past couple of months.

For sure, just to give a little bit of background, we've been talking about trans folks since marriage quality, I guess even further than that, I would say, and especially here in Texas, you know, with the bathroom bills that came out gosh, five years ago, and they started talking about it six or seven years ago. You know, we, myself and a lot of my colleagues have been in this mode of operation for quite a long time already.

If we were just to count last year's legislative session last January, it's been eighteen months since we've been experiencing these consistent cruel attacks. And I want to say that the cruelty is definitely the point where we're talking about my members in my community who have been listening to their state legislator talk about their right to live, their right to dignity, their right to privacy, and their ability to live a life that's self directed but also one

that is deserving of happiness, right you know. So TENT is the Transgender Education Network of Texas, where one of four trans led policy focused orgs in the country. So there's only four words kind of like, you know, tackling these attacks that are speaking from the voice of trans folks. And so the last few months, we back in February around the twenty second, the Attorney General dropped an opinion

saying that being gender affirming to children is abuse. And this is still using the same language that reflected a bill that was shot down last year. Following that the governor let down a an order it for DFPS or the Department of Family Protective Services CPS, for anybody else that might be listening, to start investigating these families right going to their homes, their businesses, going to the children's schools,

just to see if child abuse is going right. And there's definitely an obligation for CPS to investigate every single report of abuse to a child or a person who is elderly, right, so understand that as part of their job.

But we're also talking about an organization that's already stretched soothin in a state that's so large, with one of the largest economies, that have a large amount of folks that are already struggling, right, and so you know, having these investigations happen to families of my community members has

really put that stress really even further upfront. Right last year, we had you know, a lot of young trans folks and not barney folks, gender expansive folks argue with their state leaders in either the testimony room or on the floor of the Senate for their own dignity. And now servants of the state are trying to keep it together.

It's hard, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. But so for the last four months, a lot of families have been contemplating their options of staying in the state to fight staying in the state around you know, their support systems, you know, whatever financial way that they make money for their family, you know, the children's schooling. The list goes on of either they leave the state or stay in the state

to be able to be around family. Right. But this isn't necessarily afforded to every family because this privilege of

being able to move, it's not necessarily everybody's privilege. And so you know, there are a lot of families who do not have that option of leaving the country, leaving the state and just have to stay here, bear with it and fight with us, right, And so you know, every year, especially this less six months has been really hard on like a partner of ours, this Trevor Project, who received one hundred and fifty percent rise on call volume, And the Trevor Project is a mental health crisis line,

and that one hundred and fifty percent was just last year. We're looking at two hundred percent here of calls coming in from queer and trans community members who, UM are finding it really hard to be able to exist at the moment, you know, UM, we had on I guess it was maybe a couple of weeks ago or a week ago, I don't know, time as a construct at this time, UM, one of the legislative folks over at the Trevor Project to talk about what they have seen in this in this time, in this time of great

urgency in our community. Because for me, you know, as a as a black queer woman, to recognize that the world is unsafe for queer kids, and as a former teacher, as a as you know, as a as a queer woman, I think about how I am feeling attacked in this moment, how I struggle, you know, to keep it together, to feel like there is something to fight for, that that it's not just done right, that that that our agency, our freedom, our dignity, the respect that we have fought

so hard to get to this point is just reversed because people have decided that we are undeserving. Right. Um, I think about queer kids, and I think about the fear of what it is like to be of school age and to be going into school in an environment where you have no reprieve, that there is no support from your teachers or the administrators because of fear either of being persecuted or because of the fact that they

believe what Abbott believes. That they believe what the Republican Party believes, and that their their care and for safety of children only is about the cells in the womb. They have nothing to do with what happens when you're able to actually breathe oxygen and are this side of a uterus. And so I feel you and when you tell when you when you offer up the statistics and the numbers with the Trevor Project, like, I just don't even know what we offer. So what do you what

you know? I know that that you have, you know, a constituency base of people who are thinking about what

they are going to do. If a majority of people have to stay because they don't have the economic privilege to be able to just pick and just I don't even want to think about it as just the economic privilege, because if you're born in Texas, you've lived in this is your home, this is your state, this is your community, and the idea that you are being forced out of your community should be something that is It is outrageous to all of us when people say to me, oh, well,

they should just move, I'm like, so you just move. Why don't you just move and pick up everything that you've ever known and moved to a different state. So what does what does tent offer in terms of advice or guidance to families that are suffering right now and that they actually don't necessarily see light at the end of this very dark tunnel that we're in. It's hard to offer advice, but I can definitely offer a reminder that, you know, we live in a state that is considered

the bloodiest state for trans people here in Texas. Right we've consistently broken records around that. Last year, we broke the records for the most anti trans legislations in the country.

But we're also talking about an extremely powerful, loving and caring community that has been based off of so many amazing queer and translators that have been able to find and create the ways for us to be able to combat these forms of legislations, no matter if it is around you know, abortion access or affirming healthcare access to

whatever that's been happening. We also must remember that this fight has lasted longer than even I have been alive, and that you know, there are so many people and they all believe in what you know, the words that Martha P. Johnson that's been staying with me for so long is that if there's no pride for some of us,

until there's liberation for all of us. And so you know, the team at Tent and all of our coalition members are working around the clock to be able to create and also be able to take care of ourselves and everyone that we love, to be able to fight against all everything that's happening. You know, we try to consistently answer the question of like how it trans rights human rights right, and when we say that, we mean that, like, you know, when we're fighting for trans rights, we're also

fighting for repro We're also fighting for the migrants. We're also fighting for water access right, because all of those things affect trans people and people in those spaces that we've been coming into contact with partnering with, they understand that their fight is also going to support trans folks, So that we really need to be able to recognize that there are so many people, so many organizations that are fighting for themselves but also your kid, but also

for me right and supporting them and understanding that the way that we get through this is together. How do you think that, And it sounds like you all partner with a lot of organizations, probably not just in your state but around the country, how do you think that, in this moment of great urgency and crisis, that we have more integration of all the topics that you said, right, Like, what I think what the radical right does so well is force us into a barrel right like craps that

we're fighting for this. We're fighting for voting rights over here, we're fighting for LGBTQ rights over here, we're fighting for trans rights over there, we're fighting for repro rights over there. But like you're saying, all of these things are layered, and what it comes back to is power. And when you understand that what the radical right is after is power and complete and total control and autonomy over everything,

right that that is no longer a democracy. What do you think would get people to movement leaders to organize in a way that is more integrated than it has. These conversations with other organizers and organizations always comes back down to the point that when we're talking about supporting everyone is understanding that it is not a sheet to cover the whole population in but is to be able

to recognize the differences that we all hold. Right, like as a queer and transient person right here in Texas is the third most spoken language, but most state universities don't necessarily teach it. Right, That's just still an example of like understanding that those experiences has been able to bring together so many folks in those intersections in between all of our identities, those layers of marginalization that you mentioned.

Understanding is this is about race, this is about class, is about gender, this is about sexuality, this is about ability, and understanding that many of these institutions are based off of hurting folks that are marginalized or controlling folks that are marginalized. So recognizing those differences and recognizing the institutions that we have to interact with a day to day basis.

Is also the ability to know what has been done about it already, what hasn't worked, and what will work, and what has worked in the past and what will work now is if we do it all together. And understanding that pushing together for that progress doesn't come with sacrifice or compromise. Is understanding that we are on the right set of history and finding together requires everyone to understand that liberation must be there for all of us.

I want to ask you a question Jen that is a difficult one because it is a question about safety. How do you stay safe in a state that has targeted not I mean because I always find, as a person that has done movement work across varied movements for over a decade, that it is very hard to separate the personal from the professional. And so how do you manage both fighting for yourself the rights of your community, and like maintaining your emotional, mental health and well being.

At this time, I think safety is an idea. I think it's something we can definitely thrive for and seek, But we've got to understand that the thing that we're talking about, even risk reduction for example, is that you can make it safer, right, and making it safe for yourself and the ones around you is a lot more achievable and a lot easier to be able to have yourself on the back about when it comes to day to day is you know, being able to take care

of yourself during these moments really requires more people, which has been extremely difficult in the last two and a half years throughout the pandemic. But understanding that there are communities all the way from discord to Facebook groups, from

Facebook groups to what's App's chat rooms. Being able to share your pain and holding it together and holding space for others pain as well, has been able to give me that solace that many of us seek, that community space that many of those seek, right, I think together. I mean, we're a day before the Stonewall anniversary, right, it's also a national HIV testing day, right. But it wasn't just one person, and it wasn't just one day.

It was so many people, thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, hundreds of millions across the world of people who to say I love you to one another, and being able to take care of one another when you can't and being able to say like, hey, I don't have it in me today. I think you saw this a lot on Friday was like today, we rest, tomorrow we fight. Like everybody has a line in which you got to understand that, like self care is like paramountain moments like

this because it's a marathon. It's been a marathon. I think you've seen in the last two and ten years. It's a marathon. And you know, while you're getting water, a teammate can pick up the slag and carry Yeah. Yeah, not because they have to, but because they want to. Yeah. I think community is really important right now, Jen, Well, I just want to thank you. I want to thank

you for the work that you do. I want to thank you for making the time to come and share the work that you're doing and words of hopefulness to the woke a f audience, and you know, I really I wish you rest so that you can continue a very righteous fight. And we appreciate you so thank you. I appreciate all so much too. I'm so lucky for this opportunity to be speaking with you, so thank you.

It's no secret that the news is horsepill hard to swallow. Thankfully, there's the bituation room podcast hosted by comedian and commentator Francesca free Erntini for a lighter take on the heavy staff. Each week, the Bituation Room brings you aggressive comedians, experts, and activists to break down the issues in a way that won't just leave you crying under a weighted blanket. Get the Bituation Room on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and streaming on YouTube and Twitch. That is it for me

today on Woke app. As always, Power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.